But you’ve fostered talent since the early
days. On the track ‘Everyday A Star is
Born’ you seem to be giving a nod to the
likes of Kanye and Rhianna who you have
brought to the public’s attention.
With Kanye I feel like he’s my little brother.
We’re a family.
And when Rhianna had her problems
earlier this year, was did you all feel
part of that?
Of course. We are a family, simple. If we
need to close round to help someone,
that’s what we do.
Do you think it’s important to nurture
new talent? Help it up where you can?
You have to protect the thing that gave you
all this success. You know? This music
thing pretty much saved my life. I dread to
think what I’d be doing now without it. So
it’s my responsibility to pay that back and
leave music intact and in a great place.
And then it’s Kanye’s responsibility to
leave it to the next generation and so on
and so forth.
Taking that then, on a track like Death
of Autotune, is that you protecting music
from something you consider harmful?
The fad for using autotune in hip-hop?
Yeah, it’s me challenging the industry or at
least having that dialogue and saying we
should talk about this. Anytime something
is overused to the point it becomes a
gimmick it’s time to move on. I’m not
really putting anyone down. People seem
to think it was a diss record and it’s not
a diss record. I mean, I like some songs
with autotune... I don’t like a million! If I
hear ten, I’m good. If I hear a million I’m
getting sick.
Why do you think it was embraced so
enthusiastically?
It’s all part of a bigger thing. Because
of the internet sales of music are down
twenty percent so artists are struggling
now. Take someone like Redman. Before
he could put out a record and not get
anywhere near number one, but still sell
five hundred thousand copies, you know?
Now that’s not going to happen. Simple.
So what they’re going for is the biggest
exposure they can get. Everyone wants
to get played on the radio and radio gives
people this impression that you can be
successful if people are hearing it and
then you sell more records. All the music
is trying to fit in this one lane – everyone
is trying to get on the radio. You know
what I’m saying?
Has it passed now?
No, I fear not. There’s probably another
year or so in it before people start saying
‘yeah, let’s try some different things’.
To me, when you start hearing it in
commercials for Wendy’s – that’s when
you know it’s something to avoid. You’ll
never hear me saying bling for the very
same reason.
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